The billboard above is located 150 miles from Portland, and it's a huge green sign that soccer in the United States will never be the same.
Don't underestimate the power of a good ad. During a two-week stay in Buenos Aires in 2005, it was something I saw next to a highway, rather than anything that went on inside a stadium, that really demonstrated how far soccer had to go before it established real roots in American culture.
The two clubs based in the southern "suburb" of Avellaneda, Racing and Independiente, were engaged in a billboard war near the end of the bridge that connected the area to Buenos Aires proper. Racing started it, I think, with a reference to the 2001 Apertura title clinched at Vélez Sarsfield and the reception that awaited them back in Avellaneda at El Cilindro. Racing claimed to be the only local club big enough to fill two stadiums in one city on the same day.
Independiente shot back with a "scoreboard" ad, pointing out that in the period between Racing's Argentine titles, El Diablo Rojo had won eight national championships and five Copa Libertadores crowns.
It was on, and it was awesome. I hated to leave Argentina because I wanted to see the exchange play out, and I thought it would take decades before a soccer rivalry in the U.S. was intense enough to justify steering part of a marketing budget toward billboard trash talk. Turned out it took only five years. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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